Carbon paper for billing machines and the like



June 8, 1954 Filed July 21.

F. G. POCZATEK CARBON PAPER FOR BILLING MACHINES AND THE LIKE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 June 8, 1954 F. G. POCZATEK CARBON PAPER FOR BILLING MACHINES AND THE LIKE Filed July 21, 1952 v 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 mQE Red q ATTORNEY Patented June 8, 1954 ."P PE'B' FOR BILLING.- MACHINE SJ; ANBTHE LIKE Garilocza Chic -r A lication July 21;.1952, Serial No, 300,194:

35.;ClfljInSa. (Cl. 282=19) devised-and-used; as shown" and described fer instancein the patents of *Li A-.- Beti't 2;23651559 J 3 HI McAlvin-2g29-2;343, VJ: J; Feit1-2;363;661 and J? A; Heckmam 2,600,535 and the art citedtherein.

General objects and desirable=- properties of carbon paper of thepresenttype are knownfrom the-prionart mentionedc' Forinstaneethis carbon papershould -a-ll'ow--use-on-difierentkinds of typewritersa-nd-j typewriter attachments and similar machines.- Attachment and detachment" and other required manipulations should" be: as simple as possible; The fullest possibleuse should be made 0f-each-carbonsheet: Irregularityof'co-pying eifect should be avoidiedor-heldto -a mini-mum; Each carbon sheet:ShOuldsafelyand stronglybe held ina flat; folded conditiony except when and so far-asit ispositiveljnnfcildedby the'operatorr Suchunfolding; should be-possible for the:operatorwithoutsubstantial incon venience or 1oss-of=time= Foremc'iency and cone verriencein shipment and storage;- the folded carbon sheets: should form: thin, fiatunits and should- -be; substantially free-from irregularities in -.thickness LWhiCh cause irregular wear: or; car bon material. Finally each unit: should be aslight as possible'sinceeveryounceof extra-weight makesithesmachine operation slower and noisen In. 1 several of. these respects 1 the new unit-- is improvediover those-knownto the priorwart; It cam. be: attached; to practically alliknown mamchineswith. the'greatestj of easeandewithoutzineed I 01%;. special; attachments means. Itv. cane be:- manipulated. with .particularvspeed: safetm. once; that; it;;has been; attached-i to a: machine; Shipment. and-'storagesas rwell normallusezares facilitated;:.. The -:carbon;; sheets cam be usediup."v to., the-,1-last-. inch of; thew availableg-sunpt a; Ira-v resinarities. of cop -inn effect; are: practicalhr aroidedaz.

Theseeimpro ements are obtained bYiQJLJ-COHL structiem.whicheemplqyszonlrthree pertszofzthez utmQst: simplicity: a1; flat; singly foldedri carbon-.:. holder; 15;. strong :na-per; or-the likei; .aslong-rziszagsifolded.carbon sheeh withinlthceholder;with}. front. andsbacki fold-5s equallysspaceds from anotherand uniformly" staggered; and a few small adhesive pads at the front edge of the carbon holder, extending below the front folds,

of the carbon sheet and firmly but'releasably securing such front'folds to the carbon holder. The manufacture aswell as the useo f the. unit is simplified by this construction.

The advantages and "more detailed. features of the new unit and of its partswill',beunderstood more clearly upon a perusal of the, detailed idescription of .aflpreferred embodiment which fol lows with reference to the drawing, wherein Figure 1* is ;a perspectivelviewn of the new. articlein the. form. as. deliyeredj o he..- us r;

Eigurez is aperspectivediagrammatic viewof.

the. new articlein, one phase of. actual use FigureB isa partialvieW generally similar to Fi'gure. 2,; showing. a, different phase of. the use of the. article Figured isa. greatly enlarged-section along lines. 4+4jn -F,'ig,u-re 3,, and;

Figure5 is a diag-rammatic, exploded crosssection; throu h. the. article, in a. view. generally similar-to thatof Figure 4.

The carbon holder. Iii. agshownhas, a bottom sheet GB; and a, top sheet ortop flap 1621?; these bottom and top parts [613. It? beingconnected together, at. a, fold .line IDL. Which in actual us will-be at thgbackend of. the unit. Thetop-and, bottom. parts are' substantially. rectangular and; uniform inshapeand area-, therebyforming a.

veryssimple envelope for, the carbon sheet ll.

i nvelope is-about aw d asis the; mam-- foldedsforrn;ci -s a i e y to anned. upo it may-. beias-long-as such stationery, or may cover only ar fraction of the length of such stationery; 'Ihesca-rbon sheet l forms. arectengu'larunit;

about;.as-:Wide -;as athecarbon holde It but many.

times; longer; in ordert0-,:m'inimiz e the necessity fonattaehing and.;detaching..operations. Azsuit:

able transfer material such as carbon ink forms'aa coating. llC OfiQH-Q sideaofathewcarbon sheet. A plurality;ofszigzagrfolded sections are formedin thescarbon sheet; eachsection comprising abettion 20011315175; of= bottom'zpart l. I B l l l-Tjl T118561 successive parts: andsectiohs :are; substant mwpertidn and-a. top. part! III. Thefirst sec- UB2; etc., andsforms amere-strip,=for at Adjacen-t the front Th folds are staggered, so that successive front folds HFI, F2, etc., come progressively closer to the front edge of the carbon holder, as shown most clearly in Figure 4; thereby exposing a narrow strip of each section to the carbon holder bottom sheet for purposes of attachment. This spacing between pairs of front folds HFI, l IF2. etc., is substantially uniform. It amounts, desirably, to a distance such as one-eighth of an inch. The spacing between these front folds I iF and the back folds L in the carbon sheet-the latter being adjacent the line IMP-is also uniform. Desirably it often amounts to a distance such as five or six or seven inches, subject to considerable variation depending upon the type of the stationery for which the carbon sheet is intended. Due to the staggering of the front folds HF and the uniformity of the intermediate section parts ilB, HT, the back folds HL will usually be staggered in a manner similar to the front folds; however, they are not attached to the carbon holder.

The adhesive pads 42 below the front folds HF I are desirably formed by small strips of paper. fabric or the like. Their lower sides are coated with glue 12G or the like for permanent attachment to the top of the carbon holder bottom 5033. Their upper sides are coated with dry sealing adhesiv WA in order to releasably secure the front folds HF to the front part of the carbon holder bottom sheet HB. Preferably the width of every pad or strip i2 is onl a minor fraction of the width of the carbon holder, in order to minimize the time required for release and unfolding and the resulting effects upon the copying characteristics of the carbon sheet. The length of every pad or strip 12 slightly exceeds the dis tance from adjacent the front to the lowermost front fold HF. More particularly, as shown in Figure l, each pad 12 extends from a location between the first front fold HF! and the back folds HL forward to a location directly below the second before last front fold HFX and behind the very last front fold IIFY; thereby allowing immediat use of the uppermost section HT, HB without a releasing operation,

Each carbon holder ill is secured to the form carrier or attachment of the typewriter or other business machine. This can be done by suitable, well-known support arms, clips or the like, inserted in the space between the back folds l iL of the carbon sheet and the back fold ML of the carbon holder. The attachment bar or equivalent device is inserted in known manner between the top and bottom sheets iiiP, 58B of the carbon holder, behind the back fold ML of the carbon sheets. In order to facilitate such insertion said space between the folds l iL and ESL is preferably made long enough for the usual attachment of bars, by suitably locating the attachment pads [2 adjacent the opposite edge of the carbon holder.

For actual operation, there is usually a plurality of the carbon units supported on the form carrier; said units being disposed above one another, manifolded with one sheet of paper or the like below each carbon unit. (In Figure 2 the sheets of paper have been omitted and the vertical spacing between the carbon units has been exaggerated in the interest of a clearer diagrammatic representation.)

At the start of operation, the top section of each carbon sheet is unfolded from within the holder Ill; the front portions of the stationery to be typed upon and the front top portions of the interleaved carbon sheets are lined up at their front edges; and these front edges are then inserted below the platen of the machine, so that they are curved upward as shown in Figure 2. Such insertion is usually accomplished with the platen in raised position. The operator then lowers th platen to its normal typing position and begins actual type work.

As the platen moves from right to left, the form carrier with the system of carbon units and interleaved stationery portions thereon moves along from right to left. Likewise as the platen is turned to change from one line to another the system of carbon units and. interleaved stationcry portions moves with the platen. Forward movement of this entire system is effected by forward turning of the platen. Backward movement of the system is effected upon backward turning of the platen, by mechanism which is conventionally incorporated in the form carrier. Such mechanism, by means of the attachment clips, holds the carbon holders l0 and thereby the forwardly extending section of the carbon sheet it under a slight backward tension, away from the platen.

As a result of such backward tension, the dryseal joint between the top 12A of each adhesive pad 12 and the uppermost front fold HF secured thereto is subject to some little stress in a direction parallel with the plane of the carbon holder paper. Some such stress prevails continuously; and a particularly strong force is applied whenever the platen is turned. I found that a sufiiciently high resistance to a so directed force or stress, to prevent irregular, misdirected shifting of the carbon holders between the stationery sheets, is provided by any of the well-known permanently tacky compounds for dry sealing on paper and the like. Such a compound may contain a rubber or latex base with suitable admixtures, as is well known from the art of adhesives used in mailing envelopes and the like. In the present application the dry sealing compound on top of the pad 12 engages the underside of the carbon sheet ll (normally not coated with carbon ink but sometimes coated with wax W or the like) and holds the same to the pad and thereby to the carbon holder bottom I613 against the forces referred to.

Release of this holding effect is possible, by operations to be described presently.

When a first invoice or other stationery item has been typed the platen is raised again to allow forward pulling of the entire system of sheets; then the operator holds the system of stationery sheets in position while allowing the system of carbons to slide back under the backward tension applied thereto, by a sufficient distance for work on the next invoice; then the first invoice is torn off; the platen is lowered and turned forward or backward a sufficient distance; and the next invoice is typed in the same manner as the first. When this has been repeated a number of times, the portion of the carbon sheet used in this work is sufhciently worn to be discarded. At such times, when an invoice has been completed, the front part of the carbon as well as the stationery is separated from the remainder, in known manner, instead of sliding the carbon back as mentioned before. Depending on the relative length of the unfolded carbon and the stationery used it may or may not be necessary at this time to unfold an additional length of carbon from its folded condition between the top and bottom flaps of the holder 10. If and when such unfolding is necessary it can be efayesecor fected' themanner: diagrammatically: shown:

Figure 13.1

directly: atztheafront :edge: of 1 the carbon holder. Thecoperatornous uses two fingers to: lift up :one

corneroh the carbon-holder. top. HIT: and of the.

directly underlying, uppermosttca-rbomsheet portion I I3, as. shown: at the right front" edge: in;

Figure..-3.s Thesaid. :carb'on: portion: l IB adheres to:- the. top; IZA: 0t theoadhesive pad: I21attthei righttcorner; zbutsuchfadhesiorr can be overcome 2' by lifting .up:.thevaforementionedi parts MT and Bi. Imother wordsthe dry sealingmateria'lsi mentioned-.ha'yeless resistancerto :thezpeeling ofi" incident: too such lifting; up; than". to: the: aforementioned; stresses-parallel to .the:.-plane:.of-' the:

paper-.1

Asxtheiseal between'xeach pad? I 2 iandthe car-.- bon: sheet: I I: is :brokensmall. amount of wax fromawaxedreverse :sideIIWof the carbon sheet will remain-on. the adhesive "coating IZA of tires-pad;v partly: or fully preventing any 'repeat This: is unobjectionable in the present? sealing. application; Inzfact. it is-desirablev since this feature; prevents; subsequent. adhesion between the spent portion of the-pad :andthe-newlyum folded carbon sheet portion which is next brought into contact therewith. If therewere-such adhesion with arspent:portionof therpadand if the adhesion were strong, it would become necessary to. apply increasing effort forthe release of.successive. carbon sections. The arrangement as described'on the other hand'involves uniform releasing operations at each front fold I I F. Each adhesive pad I'Zin effect provides a series of short and narrow sealing areas, transversely of the pad," which are spent by releasing operations, one after the other and which thereafter will not apply any strong adhesive action upon the waxed reverse side portions of the carbon sheet successively contacted therewith.

This non-repeat sealing has additional advantages, at least in some instances where relatively delicate carbon coating must be used on the carbon sheet. In such cases the removal of wax IIW from any extended portions of the reverse side would undesirably affect the copying characteristics of equally extended areas of the carbon ink coating. On the other hand, the existence of two or three short and narrow areas so affected is harmless. The areas, as mentioned above, need not be any wider than about one-eighth of an inch and they can be kept at the top edge or bottom edge of the form to be typed upon where they do not interfere with any actual type work.

Accordingly it will be seen that it is most desirable for present purposes to use a somewhat special construction of the adhesive pad and also a somewhat special construction of the carbon sheet. The adhesive pad, dimensioned and arranged in the manner as described, is best formed by a rather thin strip of paper or the like, with ordinary, usually wet sealing and non-tacky adhesive I2G at the bottom side and the aforementioned tacky and dry sealing adhesive IZA on the top side; the dry sealing being suitably selected for cooperation with the reverse side H W of the carbon sheet. It is also possible to apply such dry sealing compound to the top of the carbon holder bottom IfiB direct, at suitable locations; however better results can often be obtained by the separate, double coated pads or strips which I have described. The reason is that different dry sealing compounds may best be provided for diiferentitypes: of Tcarbonsheet reversersidiasaand irrespective ,ofthe idiiferentndimensi ns; imprints: andlothenfeatures-of. the icarborr holders vsand cane hon-sheets; Moreover,".drysealcompounds usable; in engagementnwith the reverse side of s-az. carbon: sheet will..usually tendrtoaadhere also tortlie paper of' a carbon holder: For:this reasomthey:would; complicate; the; manufactures-and; storagecof 5 care bon h0lders;.. On; the; otherrhand: no; problemwhatsoever; isiapresentedj when the zdoubleasealedi' pads aressimp'ly. Cllt'iOfil'fIOHll a long strip: aniline.- stalled irrzthez-carbonuholders'ipractically dil'ith'fia same time with,theaprefoldedcarborr sheets Insteadaot tearingzoifzthercarbon: paperadirectly: at thefront 635159201 L'ChGiCQJZbOIDHhOldGIT as shown iniFigui-e 4 theoperatorzcan .tearitpofii some-suite able: distancerin-airont'aof saidredge; In thatzerentr a transverse strip of :the: last :used'top: portion; I I will still. adhere tothe flOIlli'Z-fOldll IF: Theeadevantage is: that J the; operator: will not. have: to: touch the. carbon coated iside. Ill C.;of.'the ;.carborr. sheet with his .fingerseduring: any phase otlthes' manipulation; not even-:whennpulling: outJtheJre-i leased carbon for interleaving.- betweemthe tionery.

The outer: side of: the top flap:- I GT: of? thescarhon holder; will? often :be imprinted with theemaneufacturers name andi address or: with: advert'me ing matter orth'e. like: .Such.imprintsare=.not: shown in the drawing.:. However asr sh'own'inz the; drawing said top fiap may be a'dd itional-ly mime printed with: markersv or indicia. I zPesubstantially coextensive with and'overlyingtheiseal pad-pr: seal spot I2! on the-holder bottom ILUBZI Such-r markers. may be, desirableainnsome. instances;:.int connection with the releasing; operation; When; any additional supply-.of-carbon paper:.isizneeded? the; operator: must pull thei. forwardly.'emtended-s sectionalportion cf thezcarbonqpaper; upwardzas: mentioned above, and the operation is usually facilitated if he simultaneously presses down with a fingertip on the underlying portion of the carbon holder bottom. While the carbon holder bottom itself is substantially obscured by overlying carbon sheet sections, and in any lower, manifolded unit also by overlying stationery, the markers I2P on the uppermost carbon paper unit will show very clearly the successive points to be held down for the unfolding of each carbon sheet.

The fact that these markers, and the seal strips themselves are located at the front edge of the unit provides a further advantage in simplifying the carbon release and supply operation. The operator can perform the entire operation from the normal typing position, with greater ease and convenience than if the attachment were efiected along the side or back edge of the unit. Moreover the front attachment described has the further advantage that practically no part of the carbon sheet is wasted; everything but the narrow bottom section IIBI can be used up for actual typo work.

It will be understood by persons skilled in the art that various additions and modifications are possible. For instance the unit may contain a protective paper sheet in addition to the carbon sheet shown and described, in which eventthe carbon sheet may be carbon coated on both sides. The sheet II may also be coated with transfer materials other than carbon ink; and various other modifications can be applied.

I claim:

1. A transfer unit for billing machines and the like comprising a long transfer sheet with transverse slightly staggered zigzag folds incorporated therein at uniform and relatively substantial spaces from one another to arrange the sheet in form of a short rectangular pack, the sheet being coated with transfer material on one side and also being coated with a smooth material on the other side, whereby a first set of the slightly staggered zigzag folds exposes said smooth material to the outside and a second set of said slightly staggered zigzag folds exposes said transfer material to the outside; a holder sheet for the transfer sheet with a holder bottom approximately as wide and long as the folded pack and with a holder top flap hinged to the holder bottom, the folded pack being inserted in the holder sheet with the second set of staggered zigzag folds adjacent the hinge of the top flap; and a seal pad secured to the holder bottom, located below and extending substantially across the first set of folds but not substantially beyond such folds, said pad providing, in engagement with such folds, a layer of substantially non-repeat adhesive material adapted to adhere to said smooth material in a manner releasable by peeling off but unreleasable by forces directed parallel with the transfer sheet.

2. A carbon pack comprising a long carbon sheet with a plurality of transverse slightly staggered folds incorporated therein at uniform and relatively substantial spaces from one another to form the sheet into a zigzag folded pack, said sheet being coated with carbon ink on one side whereby a first set of the slightly staggered folds exposes a surface not so coated to the outside and a second set of slightly staggered folds exposes carbon ink to the outside; a holder sheet comprising a holder bottom slightly wider and longer than the folded pack and with a holder top flap hinged to the holder bottom, the folded pack being inserted in the holder with the second 8 set of staggered folds adjacent the hinge of the top flap; and a plurality of dry seal pads secured to the holder bottom, each seal pad being a narrow strip extending from adjacent the first to adjacent the last fold of the first set of folds and each pad providing in engagement with said folds a layer of substantially non-repeat adhesive material to seal such folds to the holder bottom in a manner releasable only by peeling olf.

3. A transfer unit for billing machines and the like comprising a long transfer sheet zigzag folded to form a rectangular pack the folds of which are staggered, the sheet being coated with transfer material on at least one side; a holder sheet for the transfer sheet with a holder bottom substantially as wide and long as the folded pack and with a holder top flap hinged to the holder bottom above the folded pack; and at least two seal strips, parallel with one another and transverse to the hinge between the holder bottom and the top flap, extending between the holder bottom and the folded pack, having a substantially non-releasable coating at the undersides of the seal strips, in engagement with the holder bottom, and having a seal coating releasable by peeling oif, at the top of the seal strips, in engagement with the folded pack.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 15514390 Poorrnan Jan. 18, 1927 2,161,14 Douglas June 6, 1939 2,155,016 Morrison July 11, 1939 2,292,343 McAlvin Aug. 4, 1942 2,411,328 MacNab r- Nov. 19, 1946 2,600,535 Heckman June 17, 1952 

